Officials with the Vicksburg National Military Park are looking to increase the number of licensed battlefield guides to better meet the needs of a projected increase in visitors coming to the park, and offering a training program to help interested people become certified as licensed guides.

The free training program runs from March 14 through April 12 at the park’s visitor center, with each session going from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The deadline to register for the training program is March 1.

“We are working hard to promote a licensed battlefield guide tour as the premier visitor experience at the Military Park,” said Superintendent Bill Justice. “In order to do that, we need a larger guide force that is capable of meeting the increased demand. This training seminar is a great resource for anybody who is interested in becoming a licensed battlefield guide.”

Scott Babinowich, the park’s chief of interpretation, said the park’s present number of guides has been fairly stable over the last few years between 20 and 25 active guides.

“Right now, that’s just kind of meeting our needs,” he said. “There’s certain days when we have almost exhausted our list of available guides.

“We’re hoping to add between 12 to 20 new guides. That would help us out tremendously as we see the visitor use increase and the demand increase, and also some of our licensed guides spend their time doing other things as well. So this is just of kind of help to spread out the need.”

Babinowich said about 75 percent of the park’s licensed guides are retired, while 25 percent have full-time jobs.

“We have two categories of tours; we have car tours and bus tours,” Babinowich said.”And we also get quite a few folks who walk into the visitor center and are looking for a tour, and that’s where we have an on-call rotation, where we will call in an available guide if they say they are available that day for a tour.”

The Vicksburg National Military Park is one of two National Park Service sites authorized to offer a licensed guide program. The guides provide opportunities for visitors to expand their knowledge of Vicksburg and explore the significance of the Civil War siege of Vicksburg.

The licensed guides are authorized to charge for their tours, which range from $50 to $100, according to information from the park. A guide is required to conduct at least one tour every 45 days during the busy summer season to keep their license.

Licensed battlefield guides are required to have an extensive, in-depth knowledge of the Civil War, the siege of Vicksburg and Mississippi history, and extensive study is required by a potential guide, no matter their background or familiarity with the Vicksburg area.

“We administer an exam to become a licensed battlefield guide, and it’s fairly extensive,” Babinowich said. “Most people who have taken it recently will spend three hours on their written exam, and then they have to give a practical — they have to give a mock tour to either a member of the park staff or a senior licensed guide … We get this from a lot of people, ‘I grew up in Vicksburg, I know the story,’ and then they take the exam and they realize we’re looking for such in-depth knowledge that it does require extensive study and attending seminars and reading books. It takes an extensive knowledge base.”

The training seminar, according to the park, will provide suggested reading lists and training manuals to help the prospective guides. People interested in becoming a guide can contact Babinowich at scott_babinowich@nps.gov to discuss their interest and sign up for the training seminar.